Modelling the impact of cognitive abilities on science learning

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• Professor Andrew Tolmie UCL University College London
• Tuesday 24 May 2016, 16:30-18:00
• Faculty of Education, 184 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PQ, (room GS4 Donald McIntyre Building).

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Research has identified a range of broad and specific cognitive abilities that predict success in reading and mathematics, and this knowledge increasingly informs teaching. However, there is a lack of comparable work which pinpoints the core skills that underlie success in science. I will present three studies covering learners in Key Stages 1 to 3 and a range of science topics, which indicate an important role for both general and specific language abilities, but also a more elusive influence of executive function and inhibitory control. Taken together, the results from these studies suggest that in order to make progress we may need more refined theoretical models of what science learning involves as well as targeted empirical research.

Bio

Andy Tolmie is Deputy Director of the UCL /Birkbeck Centre for Educational Neuroscience, and was Editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology from 2007-12. He is a developmental psychologist with longstanding interests in the growth of children’s conceptual representations and behavioural skills, and the relationships between these, particularly in the primary school age range. Most of his work has focused on educationally-relevant topics and settings, with a substantial emphasis on science learning, but also on the acquisition of road-crossing skills among children

This talk is part of the Psychology & Education series.

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